Day: July 11, 2021

Myanmar is experiencing a surge in COVID-19 cases prompting a shortage of oxygen supplies that COVID-19 patients desperately need, officials say.

“Oxygen is scarcer than money,” Soe Win, a resident of Yangon, Myanmar’s largest city, told the Associated Press. He stood in line for six hours in an attempt to secure oxygen for his ailing grandmother, who is suffering with symptoms of COVID-19, the disease caused by the coronavirus.

The Health Ministry on Saturday reported a record 4,377 new confirmed cases for a total of 188,752. Vaccination information is not clear, but it appears 3.2% of the country’s 55 million people have been fully vaccinated against the coronavirus, according to The Associated Press.

Last year, the country was able to keep the COVID-19 outbreak under control with strict restrictions imposed by civilian leader Aung San Suu Kyi, plus the use of vaccines from India and China.

However, Suu Kyi was ousted in February by the military, and since then people have been reluctant to go to military hospitals. In addition, after Suu Kyi’s ouster, medical professionals were a big component of the country’s civil disobedience movement that urged people not to entrust their care in the hands of the unpopular government.

In neighboring Bangladesh, the country set a record Thursday for new infections and on Friday set a record for deaths from COVID-19, according to Johns Hopkins Coronavirus Resource Center.

However, the government’s Directorate General of Health Services said Sunday that 230 people had died, surpassing Friday’s 212. The South Asian country of 160 million people has confirmed more than 1 million cases since the beginning of the pandemic.

To combat the surge, Bangladesh has been on lockdown since the beginning of the month.

South Africa is also in a lockdown as it attempts a fresh push in its vaccination campaign amid a new surge of the virus.

Just more than 2% of South Africans are fully vaccinated as of Sunday, according to Johns Hopkins.

As much of the world struggles to vaccinate their populations, Pfizer, the biopharmaceutical company that makes one of the vaccines, says it is time to consider a booster shot to protect against the more contagious variants of the coronavirus. But U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the Federal Drug Administration said Friday they don’t believe Americans need another shot yet.

Pfizer said that some of its representatives would meet with officials at the FDA on Monday. The company had said recently that booster shots would be needed within the next 12 months.

Dr. Anthony Fauci acknowledged that booster shots may be needed but said Sunday that it was too soon for the government to recommend another shot. Roughly half of the U.S. population has been fully vaccinated.

On Sunday, Australia announced its first coronavirus-related death for 2021 and 77 new COVID-19 cases in New South Wales. Officials did not identify the woman who died, only describing her as in her 90s. Authorities said she died Saturday just hours after she was diagnosed with a locally acquired case of COVID-19.

AAustralia has been largely successful in containing the spread of COVID-19 thanks to aggressive lockdown efforts, posting just 31,103 total confirmed cases and 911 deaths, according to Johns Hopkins.

However, it has proved vulnerable to fresh outbreaks because of a slow rollout of its vaccination campaign and confusing requirements involving the two-shot AstraZeneca vaccine, which is the dominant vaccine in its stockpile.

In Belgium, researchers on Sunday described the rare case of a 90-year-old woman who was stricken with both the alpha and beta variants of the coronavirus. The woman died in March.

“This is one of the first documented cases of co-infection with two worrying variants of SARS-CoV-2,” molecular biologist and study author Anne Vankeerberghen said, according to the AFP report.

India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi and several Indian states have announced proposals to help children left orphaned during the coronavirus pandemic. The plans include monthly stipends for the children, as well as funds set up for the children’s education and health care.

India reported more than 41,000 new COVID-19 cases Sunday. During the pandemic, India has recorded 30.8 million cases of COVID-19 and more than 408,000 deaths, according to Johns Hopkins. The U.S. leads the world in number of infections, with 33.8 million, and COVID-19-related deaths, with 607,132.

Source: Voice of America

BLANTYRE – In Malawi, a survey by the Ministry of Health to help ascertain the efficacy of AstraZeneca vaccine has shown its effectiveness in fighting the coronavirus. The survey was based on current hospital admissions of COVID-19 patients across the country.
The preliminary results of the findings released Saturday were based on COVID-19 admissions between June 26 and July 8 of this year.

These results show that over 80% of 227 COVID-19 patients admitted during the period were those not vaccinated.
And those who have only had one AstraZeneca jab were 12% while those fully vaccinated only accounted for 4%.
The secretary of the Ministry of Health, Dr. Charles Mwansambo, says it’s still too early to measure the effectiveness of the AstraZeneca vaccine based on these findings.
“We are still vaccinating more and presently our vaccination status is still low. But what we have found out so far is that the majority of those that are coming in those that are not vaccinated,” he said.

However, he says the findings would help end fears and doubts some Malawians had over the vaccine, which prevented them from getting vaccinated.
Malawi has currently vaccinated about 400,000 people of the 11 million needed to reach herd immunity.
“So we encourage more people to come for vaccination because obviously this is strongly putting a case for vaccination. So I encourage citizens to make sure that they come for vaccination,” said Mwansambo.
In May, Malawi destroyed about 20,000 doses of AstraZeneca vaccine which had expired.
The incineration was largely because many Malawians were reluctant to be vaccinated over concerns on the vaccine’s safety and efficacy.
Lydia Kamwana, a baker in Blantyre, said the survey is a wake-up call to her.
“I haven’t been vaccinated,” she said. “I really wanted to go for the jab but then I was so scared. And when I saw those findings, the results are making sense and I am convinced I will get the jab once the vaccine is in stock.”
Maziko Matemba is the national community ambassador for health in Malawi. He welcomes the survey findings but he says the government is now responsible to ensure it has enough vaccine for its people.
“As you know, this is one or less than one percent of the population which has been vaccinated. So the bigger population is not well vaccinated,” he said.
However, Mwansambo said Malawi is expected to receive a donation of 192,000 doses of AstraZeneca vaccines Thursday to restock its vaccination centers, which ran out of vaccine mid-June.

Source: Voice of America

WASHINGTON – The top U.S. infectious disease expert, Dr. Anthony Fauci, on Sunday deplored the political split in the country about getting vaccinated against the coronavirus.
Polls show that Democrats, who generally are more liberal in their support of government programs, are much more inclined to get inoculated than Republicans, who often hold more skepticism about government actions and conservative views supporting individual rights.
One recent poll showed 93% of people who identify as Democrats say they have been vaccinated or intend to get shots in their arms, while only 49% of Republicans said they have or plan to.
Fauci told ABC News’s “This Week” show, “We’re trying to put politics aside. Viruses don’t know the difference between a Democrat and a Republican or an independent.”
“We’ve got to get away from the divisiveness,” said Fauci, President Joe Biden’s top medical adviser.
He said the available vaccines in the U.S. have been proven effective.
Fauci said he understands that some conservatives, often in southern U.S. states that voted for former President Donald Trump, a Republican, over Democrat Biden in last November’s election, are reluctant to get shots because health regulators have only approved the vaccines for emergency use and have yet to give them a full stamp of approval.
But Fauci said there was “no doubt in my mind (they) will get full approval.”
In the meantime, he said, “The benefit (of being vaccinated) is definitely worth the risk.” Fauci said the available vaccines are also working well against what he described as the “nasty [Delta] variant” first found in India that has taken hold in some U.S. communities.
Governor Asa Hutchinson of Arkansas, a state with a low vaccination rate, said there is “clearly conservative skepticism about government” that has to be “overcome by truth” about the effectiveness of the vaccines.
Hutchinson told ABC that those who get vaccinated, in addition to being protected against the coronavirus, also have the benefit of no longer needing to wear a face mask.
He said the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention “has it right. If you’re vaccinated, you don’t have to wear a mask.”
In the U.S., the CDC reports 67.5% of adults have received at least one shot of the typical two-shot vaccination regimen and 58.7% are fully vaccinated.

Source: Voice of America

A total of 981 new cases of the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) were reported in Cambodia this morning, of which 259 were imported, pointed out the Ministry of Health in a press release.
The total confirmed cases of COVID-19 in the Kingdom now jumped to 60,959, including 4,554 imported cases, the same source added.
Meanwhile, the ministry registered 815 new recoveries and 21 new deaths; bringing the total number of cured cases to 52,475 and the death toll to 902.
The first COVID-19 case was detected in Cambodia in late January 2020 in Preah Sihanouk province. The confirmed cases have surged quickly this year due to the Feb. 20 community outbreak.

Source: Agency Kampuchea Press

Senior health officials of Cambodia and World Health Organisation (WHO) have expressed their concern over the current COVID-19 situation in Cambodia, re-urging for more participation of each individual in containing and preventing the pandemic. “We are worrying about passing the red line if people is still relaxing preventive measures. We must act responsibly together now to revert the situation. A large scale community transmission is in front of us now if less action by individual and family, and NPIs (Nonpharmaceutical Interventions) implementations,” twitted last night H.E. Dr. Or Vandine, Secretary of State at the Ministry of Health and Chairwoman of National Ad-hoc Commission for COVID-19 Vaccination.
For her part, Dr. Li Ailan, WHO Representative in Cambodia, shared the same insight stressing that Cambodia is headed toward large-scale community transmission and overwhelmed hospital critical care capacity unless all individual and social measures are being implemented urgently, responsibility and effectively now.
“Cambodia has been working tirelessly in fighting COVID-19, including new variants. Unfortunately, there is no good sign of slowing transmission. The weekly average cases and deaths are still increasing. The existing measures are not sufficient and new interventions are needed,” she added on her twitter last night.
Since early this month, the daily cases of COVID-19 in Cambodia were recorded at almost 1,000. As of this morning, the tally reached 60,959, of which 52,475 have recovered with 902 deaths.

Source: Agency Kampuchea Press